


when she knows what she wants from her time

by loversinfiniteness



Series: gather ye rosebuds [2]
Category: The Mentalist
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-05
Updated: 2020-04-05
Packaged: 2021-03-01 02:46:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,693
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23497732
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/loversinfiniteness/pseuds/loversinfiniteness
Summary: She pouts. "You're not going to ask me how I am?""You'll tell me anyway," says Cho, flicking through his copy of Jane Eyre.She holds up her hand and points a finger. "True. But a girl likes to be asked anyway.""A girl would probably also like to pass her test," says Cho.
Relationships: Kimball Cho/Summer Edgecombe
Series: gather ye rosebuds [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1690651
Comments: 6
Kudos: 26





	when she knows what she wants from her time

**Author's Note:**

> Uptown Girl pervades through the consciousness of this fic.

_i. tired of her high class toys_

Summer doesn't want Cho to come to her house, and Cho's own house isn't a place he'd ever invite anyone else, so they have their tutoring sessions during free periods and occasionally after school in an empty classroom. 

"Hey, Kimball!" says Summer. She smiles at him when he walks in, as always. 

"Summer," says Cho politely, and sits down before taking his books out of his bag. 

She pouts. "You're not going to ask me how I am?"

"You'll tell me anyway," says Cho, flicking through his copy of _Jane Eyre_ _._

She holds up her hand and points a finger. "True. But a girl likes to be asked anyway." 

"A girl would probably also like to pass her test," says Cho. 

"Ugh," says Summer. "You're right." She opens her copy of _Jane Eyre,_ and her frown disappears. "But I finished it before the test this time! Are you proud of me, Kimball?" 

"Very," says Cho, in a way that might not be sarcastic. Summer clearly chooses to interpret it like so, because she grins. 

Cho manages to quiz Summer on all the major characters and themes before her concentration breaks. 

"What are you doing tonight?" she asks. 

He focuses on the list of points he's prepared for this session. "Not much," he says. It is a fit of madness which leads him to say the next thing. "You?" 

"Oh, I'm so glad you asked!" she says, and in one smooth motion sweeps away the book. Cho sits back in his chair and sighs. 

"I'm going to a concert. Wanna come?" 

"Not really," says Cho. He flips a page of his notebook. 

"Aw, come on," says Summer. "Why did you ask about my plans if you weren't interested in coming?" 

"Because it was the polite thing to do," says Cho. "And now you've told me." 

Summer is not discouraged in the slightest. "It was an opening, Kimball," she says, but she doesn't sound impatient. "Come on, don't you want to know who I'm going to see?" 

Cho puts down his pencil: a universal sign of giving in. "Fine. Who?" 

She beams at him. "Puzzles the Will." 

"Puzzles the — wait," he says. Stops. Looks at her. "Really?" 

Summer hasn't stopped grinning. "Yep! I'm the best, right?" 

Cho wisely doesn't reply to that. 

"You can pick me up here at seven," Summer continues. "Oh, I'm so excited!" 

Cho is still recovering from the shock. "Do you like them as well?"

Summer shrugs. "Not really, but I know you do." She grins at him. "I'm excited to see you excited." 

Cho is impossibly touched. He's pretty sure he's never mentioned liking them to Summer before. "Thanks," he says, which doesn't half cover it, but he's not sure what else to say. He's never imagined the girl he tutors announcing she has tickets for them to see one of his favourite bands. 

"You're welcome," she replies. "And now, back to work. I'm going to get an A this test. I can feel it." 

That sentence makes Cho remember the circumstances of this tutelage. Summer's grades before he started tutoring her were terrible. But now she's been getting a string of B's and C's. If she gets an A, he will have done his job, and they won't need to meet twice a week any more. 

He knows why he doesn't want that to happen, but it's something he'll think about later. Right now, he's going to make sure Summer knows every damn thing there ever was to know about _Jane Eyre._

* * *

_ii. can't afford to buy her pearls_

It was a mistake for Cho to tell Rigsby what he was doing tonight.

 **Group chat:** **_wayne and the gang 2kforever_ **

**Rigs:** guess who has a DATE tonight

 **Rigs:** CHO

 **Cho:** I knew I shouldn't have told you. 

**Lisbon:** This is our business because??

 **Van Pelt:** it's with summer isn't it!!! 

**Cho:** Yes. 

**Van Pelt:** omg awwww!!! i'm rooting for you two xxx

 **Jane:** Good luck Cho! 

**Cho:** Please stop. 

**Lisbon:** Guys, don't tease him

 **Rigs:** isnt that the point of this chat

 **Lisbon:** Well if you're asking for it…

 **Rigs:** ok ill stop

Cho mutes the group chat and gets ready. At six-fifty, he parks by the school gates and gets out to wait for Summer. 

She's fifteen minutes late. 

"Hey, Kimball!" she calls. She waves at him as she approaches his car. 

"You look nice," he says politely. 

She beams at him and twirls. "So do you." She waves the tickets. "Look, I didn't forget them!" 

She seems pleased that she had managed this basic task and he smiles in spite of himself. He opens the door on her side and she gets in gracefully, patting the driver's seat. 

"Where are we going?" he asks, when his seatbelt is done up. 

"Here." She hands him the tickets and he turn on his phone torch to read them. 

"All right, let's go." 

She finishes retying her boots and grins at him. "Are you excited?" 

"Yes," he says. 

She rolls her eyes. "Come _on_ , Kimball. This is your favourite band! I can't believe you didn't know that they were in town performing!" 

"I don't keep up with their movements," says Cho. 

She laughs, even though he didn't say that to be funny. "That's why you're lucky you have me," she says, and pats his shoulder. She sighs. "It was like _destiny_ when Omar told me they were performing tonight. I knew you liked them, you know." 

"How did you know?" he asks. 

Summer is only too happy to reveal her sources. "You've liked them on Facebook," she proclaims smugly. 

Of course it would be social media that gave away Cho's secrets. 

Summer chatters about her friendship group: from what Cho can gather, they've all dated each other at least once, but curiously Summer never directly mentions herself. They arrive at the venue and she jumps out the car. "We're here!" 

Unmistakably, they are, because there is a massive queue and a sign proclaiming that Puzzles the Will is performing tonight. Summer skips to the front of the queue and Cho follows at a sensible pace. "We've got VIP tickets," she says. 

The bouncer takes their tickets and scans them. An alarming red beep follows. 

"Hmm," he says. "Looks like you've got fake tickets." 

"What?" Summer grabs them and stares at them. "No! No, they can't be. Kimball? They're not, are they?" 

The bouncer shrugs. "Sorry, kids." He tries to scan them again. "They're not valid." 

Cho looks at Summer. "Where did you get them from?"

Summer's lip wobbles. "Just — just some guy. Omar said he was OK, so I trusted him… oh, I _knew_ something was going to go wrong! Everything was too perfect…" 

Cho decides he can be sad about this missed opportunity later. He puts an arm around her shoulders and walks her away to a nearby bench. 

"Summer, don't cry," he says. "It's fine, you made a mistake." 

"But I didn't know I was making a mistake!" she says. "I'm so sorry, Kimball. I know you really wanted to see them." 

"It's fine," says Cho, even though the expression on her face says something different. "We can still do something else." 

"We can?" Her face lights up. He finds it very easy to make her face light up, he thinks. "Because there's this great new ice cream place just a few blocks from here, and I was going to say we go there after the concert, only now there isn't a concert to go to…" 

"Let's go," says Cho. He doesn't like ice cream, but even more than that, he doesn't like seeing her miserable. Summer recovers her usual high spirits and between stories about her friends, she makes him tell her about his. 

She particularly wants to know about Jane. Cho tells her that he's sort of latched onto their circle, by way of Lisbon. 

"Lisbon," says Summer slowly. "Isn't she the one with a braid bun who's Minelli's favourite?" 

Cho supposes that is one way of looking at Lisbon. "Yes," he says. "She's one of my best friends." 

Summer opens her mouth. "Oh, no, I didn't mean anything like that! She seems really nice! But I don't know… why would a new kid latch onto her?" 

Nobody has ever pressed Cho for psychological insights into his friends before, and he finds he sort of enjoys the experience. "Jane likes her," he says. "She likes him back, too." 

Summer wrinkles her nose. "He's been here, what, like, two weeks?" 

Cho shrugs. "Jane's very open about himself. In the first ten minutes of meeting him you find out a whole month's worth of stuff." 

"Not like you," says Summer, as they round a corner. "It took me _weeks_ to get you to open up." 

Cho doesn't really know what to say to that. 

"But I did it!" says Summer. Her grin is back. "Now look at us, going for ice cream." 

They reach the ice-cream parlour and Cho opens the door for her to go in. She picks a booth at the very back of the parlour. 

"Do I get a banana split or a raspberry and vanilla sundae?" she asks, peeking at him over the menu. 

Cho doesn't know if there's a right answer to this question, so he plays it safe. "Get whatever you want." 

"But I want both." 

"Then get both." 

She laughs. The waitress comes over and she does actually order both. Cho orders a mere scoop of cookie dough ice cream, and justifies it by saying he'll finish what she doesn't manage. Summer seems happy with this arrangement and starts telling a story about a time her friend ordered too much dessert and the entire table banded together to finish it. 

The ice-cream starts to melt at eight. Summer finishes it at eight-thirty, in between talking about her brother, forcing Cho to talk about his family and squeezing from Cho as much details as she can about Jane's serial killer connections. It was at the top of school gossip for about three days until someone discovered that Mrs Hightower was having an affair with Mr Howard, but it's not completely left the gossip mill yet. 

At nine, Cho says that they should go, since they're not ordering anything else. Summer declares she's hungry and Cho finds he is too, so they go to a pizza place that Summer's friend works at so they can get a discount. Summer is horrified to find that Cho likes pineapple on pizza and goes on an impressively detailed off-the-cuff rant about it. Cho laughs in the middle, which delights her so much that she continues the rant for as long as is humanly possible. She admits defeat when she runs out of breath. 

At eleven-thirty, he drops her off at the end of the street where she lives. He gets out of the car and opens her door for her. She climbs out and they walk around to the front of the car. 

"I'm really sorry about the concert," she says. "I'm going to _kill_ Omar. I really am." 

"It's not a problem," says Cho. They stand for too long without speaking, so he says something. "Goodnight, Summer." 

She looks surprised, but recovers. "Goodnight, Kimball." She walks down the street and Cho waits until she turns into a house. Then he gets back into his car and drives home. 

Back home, Rigsby has apparently learnt the art of subtle communication, because Cho doesn't have any messages from the group chat. 

**Rigsby:** cho 

**_Two missed calls from Wayne Rigsby._ **

**Rigsby:** ur still not back???

 **Rigsby:** im just gonna assume you got lucky. wow. congrats man. i cant believe you said you were just tutoring her. 

**Rigsby:** ok seriously whats going on

Cho types out a reply. _Stop being so interested in my love life._

 **Rigsby:** thought id never hear from you!!

 **Rigsby:** it went well huh??

 **Cho:** I had a good time, if that's what you mean. 

**Rigsby:** you //know// i mean more than that

 **Rigsby:** did you kiss her

 **Cho:** I'm going to ignore that.

 **Rigsby:** hey at least your crush is into you

 **Rigsby:** the future for me and grace looks bleak

 **Cho:** Only because you've never tried anything. 

**Rigsby:** come on man

 **Rigsby:** would you if you were in my position???

 **Cho:** That isn't relevant.

 **Rigsby:** i hate it when ur right

* * *

_iii. a downtown man/that's what i am_

Their next tutoring session is unavoidable. Cho's cancelled all their after school slots, but both he and Summer know they share this free period. So it has to happen. 

Cho gets to the room first. He thinks Summer must've waited for him to go in, because she emerges right after he's sat down, waving a piece of paper. 

"I got an A!" she says in her croaky voice. She practically dances around the tables to get to Cho. She pushes the paper in his face. "Look! I did it!" 

It is impossible for him not to look, as the paper is literally covering his face. "I see that," he says. "Well done." 

"Thank you," she says, dragging out the 'you'. "It's all because of you, Kimball. I could _never_ have done it without you." 

"You did the work, not me," he says. 

"Well, yeah," she says, pulling out a chair to sit next to him, "but you _encouraged_ me. You believed in me. And I did it!"

He sighs, barely audibly. "Congratulations." 

Somehow, she manages to hear it. "What? What's wrong, Kimball?" 

"Nothing," he lies. 

She searches his face. "No, something's wrong," she declares. "What is it? Why aren't you happy for me?" 

"I am happy for you," he says. 

"No, you're not!" she says. She's starting to sound hysterical now and she reigns it in because she doesn't want to be one of those girls, so she takes a deep breath and continues. "You've been avoiding me ever since that night we went out. I thought we really bonded then," she says, and her voice drops. "It was the most fun I've had in ages." 

"That's nice," says Cho, which turns out to be a bad choice of words. 

"That's nice? _Nice_?" Summer jumps up and starts raising her voice. Thankfully they're in a part of the building people don't go to when school's finished, otherwise they might hear two seniors yelling at each other about something utterly stupid. "Why are you pushing me away? I thought we were friends!" 

"We're not friends!" says Cho, but it's more like a shout. He stops himself, regains control, before he says any more. 

It shatters something in the room.

"Why not?" asks Summer softly. She sounds as if she's about to cry. "I'd like to be friends." 

Cho doesn't say anything, because it's safer that way. 

Or so he thinks. Summer takes his silence as some kind of cowardice, which he supposes it is. "Why not?" she demands. "Or is it because you want something more? This is why I don't _fucking_ hang out with guys! You always want _more_. So admit it, then. At least say it! What do you want from me?" 

Something in Cho snaps. 

"Fine," he says, quite calmly, even though he doesn't feel that way at all. "I like you." 

Summer's mouth drops open. Cho starts to think that perhaps this was a mistake, even though it's one he can easily recover from because she won't need his tutoring any more so he won't have to see her. He begins to prepare saying goodbye with the appropriate degree of emotion. 

Then Summer kisses him and drives all the words out of his head.

They break apart with heavy gasps. "Oh, god," she says. "Oh, god." She stares at him. "Did you really mean it?" 

He did, so: "Yes." 

She doesn't need to be told a third time. 

* * *

_iv. she'll say that she's mine_

Summer pulls up to Lisbon's house the morning after Jane's party and waves frantically out of the car window. 

"My girlfriend's here," says Cho. A smile plays on his face, instead of his normally stoic expression. "See you all later." 

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading!


End file.
